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Epstein Drive
The Epstein Drive is a modified Fusion Drive invented by around 130 . It enabled humanity to travel beyond Earth and the inner planets, and colonize the asteroid belt and the outer planets. Background The drive utilizes magnetic coil exhaust acceleration to increase drive efficiency, which enables spaceships to sustain thrust throughout the entire voyage. A ship fitted with the efficient Epstein drive is able to run the drive continuously for acceleration to its goal and then after flipping at about the halfway point is able to run the drive continuously during deceleration. Previous engine designs used propellant less efficiently and could not be run long enough to achieve the high velocities that the Epstein drive permitted. Since its invention and up until the discovery of the Ring network, the Epstein drive remained the most advanced transportation technology humanity had access to. Known models *'S-250 Series Epstein Drive': A UN drive used on ''Leonidas''-class battleships. This drive is older and less efficient than most current drive models. *'S-400 Series Epstein Drive': A UN drive used on ''Truman''-class dreadnoughts. *'Bush shipyards Black Ops supercooled Epstein drive - CODENAME Silversmith': A drive built on Luna and secretly used on the ''Amun-Ra''-class stealth frigates owned by Protogen. *'RT-10 'Kaminari' Epstein Drive': MCR drive used on ''Donnager''-class battleships. *'RTF-B Series Epstein Drive': MCR drive used on ''Scirocco''-class Assault cruisers. *'RT6-B Epstein Drive': MCR drive used on ''Morrigan''-class Patrol destroyers. *'G-4000 Series Epstein Drive': A very large drive used on the Nauvoo/Behemoth. *'Supercharged Destrier-4 High-Velocity Epstein Drive': the high performance drive installed in the Razorback racing pinnace. Drive Details Using the information available at Atomic Rockets website , the Epstein drive possesses the following performance characteristics (based upon the performance of Epstein's yacht): * Thrust: 1,000,000 N *Specific Impulse (isp): 1,100,000 seconds *Exhaust Velocity (ve): 11,000,000 m/second (~3.7% of light speed) *Mass Flow Rate (ṁ ): 0.09 kg/second *Thrust Power: 5.5 Terawatt *Engine's Thrust to Weight Ratio: ~140 *Propellant mass fraction (yacht's mass fueled / mass empty): ~4 An alternative set of performance statistics has been suggested by the Tough SF website , based on the performance of the on-screen: * Thrust: 6,370,000 N * Specific Impulse (isp): 1,927,000 seconds * Exhaust Velocity (ve): 18,900,000 m/second (6.8% of light speed) * Mass Flow Rate: 2.2 kg/second * Thrust Power: 60.2 Terawatt * Total power output: 96.8 Terawatt * Engine's Thrust to Weight Ratio: Presumably over 3 (The Roci has a dry TWR of 2.6) * Fusion type: D-He3 (1:2 mixture ratio) * Fusion pulse rate: "we see can be achieved with as few as 10 pulses per second, or hundreds if possible" This latter estimate would, for example, give a fully-fuelled Nauvoo with a Dv of 0.24c a mass ratio of around 34. Media |-|Images = File:Epstein's yacht over Mars.jpg|The first Epstein Drive on Solomon Epstein's yacht File:S02E06-UNN_NuclearMissile_EpsteinDrive_ID_00.png File:rocket-001.png|Tsiolkovsky rocket equation File:rocket-002.png|Energy Density of various sources of fuel File:rocket-003.png|Inertial Confinement Experiments File:rocket-004.png File:rocket-005.png |-|Videos = File:The Rocket Science of 'The Expanse' File:THE_EXPANSE_NASA_Behind_the_Science_-_Space_Travel File:Let's Do the Science The Epstein Drive See also * * Fusion Drive External links * * on Wikipedia * * by Winchell Chung * * Category:Science & Technology Category:Technology